


Vacation

by firechant



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos' faith in science is renewed, Cecil is (mostly) human, Cecil is confused by things like architecture and dogs, M/M, Not actually in Night Vale, Not in Desert Bluffs either, Now we get to see what happens when Cecil is the confused one, Probably just fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 01:57:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1025939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firechant/pseuds/firechant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We've seen tons of fics where Carlos has just arrived in Night Vale.  </p><p>Not this time.  </p><p>This time, Cecil is going to visit Carlos and his family and friends.  What will Cecil think of the outside world?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vacation

"Now leaving Night Vale city limits," Carlos announced. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but it might have gotten just a little bit brighter outside when they crossed the border. He'd have to come back later and measure the actual brightness difference across the border. Night Vale was proving to be a font of scientific anomalies, and he supposed the sun's brightness should be no exception.

Carlos glanced over at the passenger seat. Cecil wasn't staring outside as he might have expected - he had mentioned that this was his first time leaving the city limits physically, whatever that meant. But no, Cecil was smiling, his head resting in his arm as he just stared at Carlos. Carlos remembered that he had found Cecil's staring unpleasant and aggressive when he had first moved to Night Vale, but now the adoring stare was just... well, sort of adorable, honestly. Carlos smiled faintly. "You should look outside. You said you'd never been on this part of Route 800, and the desert out here is pretty spectacular..."

"Oh, Carlos," Cecil said. Carlos grinned at Cecil's tone. He couldn't get over the way Cecil said his name. It was just so endearing. "I live in the desert. I've seen it my whole life. You, on the other hand, are much prettier than the desert. Are you sure I can't -"

" _No,_ " Carlos said. "I'm driving. You can't pet my hair, I would drive into a cactus or something."

"Fine," Cecil pouted. But he did finally grudgingly look out the window. Carlos smiled, wondering what Cecil would think of the real world.

-

"Are we there yet?"

"You asked that five minutes ago."

"Well, are we?"

"Cecil, I don't know anywhere that has five-minute teleportation outside of Night Vale."

"Really?" Cecil looked worried. "How do people get around?"

"By driving. Like we're doing. Or by flying. Like we're going to."

"Well, how much longer do we have to go?" Cecil fidgeted with the glove compartment.

"Not too long. Just over an hour until we get to the airport. But we'll be driving through a town in a couple minutes, if we want to stop and eat or something."

Cecil nodded, and Carlos took that to mean that they should stop for fast food. Carlos was very much looking forward to his return to the real world, where the street signs were just signs with numbers, and your attempts to sleep wouldn't be interrupted by hooded figures that accidentally wandered into your bloodstone circle and started making that awful keening sound, and where you could use _actual writing utensils_ , and pets and food objects didn't levitate. Really, his only source of stress would be making sure Cecil got along with everyone, and that couldn't be too bad, could it?

About a week ago, Carlos' sister Monica had called and asked when she would get to see her baby brother again, and how _was_ that dinky little town he moved to anyway? When she learned that Carlos had a boyfriend, Carlos could swear she cooed a little bit, just before she demanded to see him in person. "It's my birthday next week," she had said. "Why don't you and your boyfriend come to visit? I'll also invite our old college friends and maybe our parents can visit for a day."

Carlos hadn't really been sure how to broach the subject with Cecil - they had never really talked about their families, and Carlos had learned early on that Cecil hadn't seen his parents for at least a decade, but Cecil never told him what had happened to them. So they just tended to avoid the topic of families in general. But Carlos needn't have worried; Cecil positively glowed when Carlos asked him if he would be interested in meeting some of Carlos' family and friends.

"When will they come to Night Vale?" Cecil had asked. Carlos fidgeted. He wasn't sure Cecil had ever left Night Vale (excluding the terrible events of the sandstorm, which they had both agreed never to mention again) and with Cecil busy at the radio station every day, he wasn't sure Cecil would be able to get enough time off to spend a weekend somewhere else.

"Well," he said, "Monica was actually hoping we come to visit her in Colorado - that's one of the square ones in the middle," he added when Cecil's head tilted.

"Leave Night Vale?" Cecil asked, slowly, as if trying to figure out how to make his tongue form the words.

"Only for two days," Carlos reassured him. "We could just take the weekend off. You can tell everyone what life outside Night Vale is like when you come back."

Cecil perked up a bit. "Well, this weekend was cancelled anyway, so I suppose I could just tell everyone about it on Monday."

Carlos sighed with relief. "Alright, then, I'll let her know we're coming."

Now, five days later, they were three hours in to their drive to L.A., where they would then fly to Colorado and carpool into the mountains to a house that one of his friends had generously donated for the occasion.

Carlos decided on Arby's for fast food. He knew Cecil ordered something normal from the Arby's in Night Vale, and familiar was probably good as far as Cecil was concerned. He did seem more interested in the outside world now that they were out of the desert and into a town. Carlos glanced over at him again; he seemed to be enraptured by the buildings they were driving by. He wondered if Cecil found this as strange as Carlos found Night Vale - not a bloodstone circle in sight, no mysterious hooded figures, not even any imposing obsidian monoliths.

Once they arrived, Carlos parked and stepped out of the car, happy to stretch his legs after three solid hours of driving. Before Cecil could get out of the car, Carlos ran around, opened the passenger side door, and bowed dramatically. "Welcome to Hesperia," he announced, with a flourish toward the door to the Arby's. "Ready for your first taste of the world outside Night Vale?"

Cecil grinned, hopped out of the car, and kissed Carlos happily on the mouth. Carlos grinned into Cecil's mouth, kissed him back for a moment, then pulled back.

"I just got it," Cecil said with a huge dopey smile. He did that thing with his eyes where he probably thought he was batting them seductively, but it just sort of looked like he was trying to blink something out of his eye. _He's such a dork,_ Carlos thought. _But he's my dork._ He pulled Cecil into a hug, and they turned to walk into the building.

**Author's Note:**

> So I was going to write this all in one fell-swoop, but then it ended up being longer than I thought. This is more of a preface than anything, but I hope you enjoy it regardless!
> 
> Cross-posted to my blog on tumblr: http://firechant.tumblr.com/post/65681990119/wtnv-fic-vacation-chapter-1


End file.
